


Guerrilla Warfare

by dieselfuels



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, Star Wars: Poe Dameron (Comics)
Genre: F/M, In Memory of Carrie Fisher, M/M, POV Poe Dameron, Rey and Rose become friends, Slow Build, Trans!Poe Dameron, WIP, references to the poe dameron comics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-28
Updated: 2018-01-01
Packaged: 2019-02-22 16:10:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13170459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dieselfuels/pseuds/dieselfuels
Summary: Taking place between Episodes 8 & 9, What remains of the Resistance regroup on a small, unnamed Desert moon at the edge of the universe. Finn and Rose take time to figure out their new place in life as Rey and Poe want to move forward.





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sadeggs](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sadeggs/gifts).



> I just want to get this out of the way that this isn’t going to be one of those fics where the trans character has this really awkward coming out to another party that feels almost unrealistically well-received. Being trans and seeing clearly cis authors write these fics that revolve solely around transitioning is… Something. I’ve been waiting for the chance to get into an IP where, theoretically, trans bodies/identities are normalized. It’s 2017, Star Wars takes place a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. Let me have this.

 It was a cool, arid moon despite being full of desert and shrub. Too far from its suns to suck up heat the way most sand and clay does. Dome-shaped adobe buildings dotted the landscape, clustering together near a large plateau that had been hollowed out into an aircraft hangar. This, in a different time, was a Rebel outpost. Too small and far from actual civilization to be a base, it was more of a refueling station full of Rhydonium cells and food rations. Now, however, the station was a shell of its former self filled with only a quarter of the Alliance that it had been.

 

Poe came up around the side of a bulk transport ship, inspecting for any way to refit the ship for makeshift weaponry. His footsteps echoed across the hangar and calloused fingers ran against the freighter’s smooth metal. He tapped the nose of the vessel a few times before heaving a loud sigh, unsure if it was possible to create the defenses needed in order to travel safely back into First Order territory. Resources were low here and broken ships left to rust had to be gutted in order to start the task at hand.

 

Another pair of footsteps appeared from behind Poe, making him gasp into a loud startle, whipping around with wide eyes. “Finn!” The pilot cocked a lopsided grin.

 

He smiled back, “You think you can fix it?”

 

Both men looked up at the huge ship, it’s boxy exterior gleaming in the low light of both suns setting through the half-open blast door.

 

“I can fix ‘er sure, I just don’t think it’s best if we head back unarmed.”

“ _Unarmed_?”

“It’s a Action VI transport. Ships like these used to be converted by pirates for a short time back during the _clone wars_ but… I’m not sure where I could comfortably fit something like a turret system... Maybe I can just screw a blaster on the side here.” Poe touched the ship and grinned.

Finn smiled back, shifting his weight, “Maybe Rey can help you? Or Rose?”

Poe nodded, thinking as he kept his hand loosely placed on the ship.

“Hey. Uh. I came to get you for dinner. But I never got to thank you for patching your- _my_ jacket up.”

“It’s no problem, buddy.”

“Even if you stapled it together.”

 

The two chuckled at one another, Poe glancing towards the blast door absently as a silence settled in the hangar.

 

“Both of us should be heading in if we want hot food.”

Finn scoffed, following his counterpart out of the hangar, through the blast door, “I _hate_ rations.”

“You just need to rehydrate it all in hot water. The polystarch actually gets _fluffy_ that way.” Poe made this motion this his hand, squinting.

 

The two made their way towards the cluster of buildings about a hundred feet from the plateau. As the two suns sank lower and lower, dipping into the horizon, both Finn and Poe trailed into the kitchen, greeting their comrades warmly.

 

\--

 

Rose motioned a handwritten list towards Rey, showing what she had written hastily during supper, “there’s a few AT-ST heads at the back of that hangar, I’m sure you can gut their consoles and I can rework those. I think they had been scavenged for parts, because I can’t find the legs anywhere, so don’t count on using them for anything else on this list.”

 

Poe was standing between the two women in a narrow hallway, reading the list intently over Rose’s shoulder as he rubbed his chin scruff.

 

Rey nodded, “You want me to completely tear apart that X-Wing too?”

“Yeah, Sadly. It’s in great condition but we can’t haul it. We barely have enough parts to fix this freighter as-is and it’s too dangerous for you to take that millennium falcon out. We need the freighter to conceal it.”

“Right.” The young Jedi sighed, “alright then.”

“So we can do this? It’s feasible?” Poe darted his eyes back and forth, glancing at both Rose and Rey.

Rose smiled warmly, “Of course. I’ll run the course of action by the general…. Or would you…?” She looked at both her counterparts in hopes they’d make the proposition themselves.

The pilot shrugged, “This is turning out to be _your_ project, Rose. I was baffled before I asked you.”

Rey nodded, sensing the mechanic might be intimidated to ask for permission to tear apart the majority of the hangar, “We can go together if you like, my quarters are right next to her’s.” She motioned behind herself.

 

Finn popped into the hallway from a door behind the three, making brief eye contact with Rose before silently heading down the opposite end of the hall Rey was pointing towards. The mechanic turned quickly back to Rey, blushing, “That would be lovely.”

The two shuffled towards General Leia’s quarters, leaving Poe behind. Rey turned around to see if he was coming and he made a lazy gesture for her to keep going, “She’ll accuse me of being rash and think it’s my idea to tear apart that starfighter. You go ahead.” Both turned their backs to one another and went in opposite directions.

 

The night settled into a comfortable silence and the moon’s monstrous planet hung in the horizon. Poe made his way down the hall, finally entering his room with a heavy sigh. BB-8 had powered down for the night at the foot of the tiny bunk and the only, tiny window in the room seemed to be engulfed with the night sky. Poe sat at the foot of the bed and started to unlace his boots, thinking deeply about what move the resistance could possibly make next. Even the current task at hand, outfitting this ship, seemed daunting.

 

Muffled murmuring came from outside Poe’s door, making him knit his brow in confusion. The pilot got up slowly and cracked open his bedroom door, listening through the small opening.

 

“I’m sorry about...  Y’know.”

 

Rose?

 

“It’s fine. We’re all under so much stress and after your sister and everything…. Look, I understand. It’s okay.”

“Thank you. Goodnight, Finn.”

 

The mechanic started to head back to her bunk, making Poe lean back into his room, pulling the door back with him. He peaked back out of the door and leaned into the hallway, making eye contact with Finn.

 

“Poe? What are you _doing_?”

“Oh, you know.” He waltzed out of the doorway, tripping on his unlaced boots before leaning casually onto the wall. “What’s up?”

“Uh... Y’know.” He shrugged, walking towards Finn, hands in pockets.

“So you and Rose…”

“It’s not- It’s not like that. For _me_ anyway.”

“Hm.”

 

They marinated in one another's silence.

 

“So that mission to Canto Bight wasn’t a big romantic getaway?”

“What? **No**!”

Poe shrugged, smirking, “Well. I still like you.”

 

Finn stuttered, watching Poe head in for the night.


	2. Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Years! This is what I spent my time doing as the ball dropped.

General Organa shrugged, making a vague hand motion towards the spot in the hangar where the X-Wing once sat.

 

“You **_what_ **?”

“I’m tired of butting heads with you Finn. I sent our last ship out to get supplies and more recruits.”

“Wh-what about the rest of us, or-or fixing the ship we-”

“We need to regroup here and _wait_. You’re right, we can’t be out flying the Millennium Falcon, it’s way too risky right now. But we need supplies, if we can get another freighter, and more manpower, we can move to a base with even more supplies and more manpower. You need to trust me on this. The story is that the X-wing was won during a bet. For all intensive purposes it’s decommissioned. It will be fine.”

“Despite having a huge rebel insignia on the side of it.”

Leia shrugged, confident in her decision, and walked out the hangar door, “You don’t think it looks cool?”

Poe turned around, shouting, “Yeah! Cooler than **_Hoth_ **!”

 

He kicked the air in frustration as Rey and Rose trailed out of the freighter, both of them looking up at Poe and then at each other.

 

“Are you alright?” Rey started to wipe her oil-covered hand onto the thighs of the orange jumpsuit she was wearing.

“You’re not worried about being trapped here on this _rock_?”

 

The jedi shrugged, glancing over at Rose, who was now on her knees and instructing BB-8 where to weld the side of the hull. Both women gave each other a glance before Rose pivoted herself towards Poe, “That X-wing wasn’t going to save us. It’s working garbage, did you even take a good look at it?”

“Wh- of course I did!”

 

“Only half of its armaments are operational.” Rose shook her head, turning back to BB-8 and thanking him politely for the help. There was a beat in the conversation as Rey started to move off the ramp leading to the ship, patting her pockets looking for a tool, “If we get into trouble we can just take the Millennium Falcon, Poe.”

 

He sighed heavily, looked at the cargo ship, and then started heading out of the hangar.

 

The suns hung low and heavy in the morning sky, beating down on everything it touched. It was comfortably warm, but not hot, and the atmosphere was completely clear, the sky a rich blue. Poe walked past C-3PO, who was desperately trying to hang up linens on a clothesline with his limited arm range, the wind repeatedly blowly the cream-colored sheets into his gold-plated face.

 

The inside of the adobe buildings were cool and dim, and smelled like an old library from the years of dust that had accumulated. What was left of the resistance worked tirelessly in their spare time to clean the halls and rooms, but there was only so much manpower.

 

Finn was on his hands and knees, scrubbing furiously at the kitchen floor with a large brush. The Pilot awkwardly stood in the doorway, trying to kick the dusty earth off his boots.

 

“You need help?”

“Huh?” Finn looked up, sitting back onto his knees, “If you could dump this bucket and refill it. I think it’s more mud than mop water at this point.”

“Sure.” Poe grabbed the handle of the bucket, taking a few steps outside to toss the filthy water. He threw it under the automatic pump outside and started to rinse it off before refilling it.

 

The ex-stormtrooper stood up and walked outside, brush and bar of soap in both his hands, “I heard we’d be stuck here longer than expected.” He placed both items into the bucket and turned off the water pump slowly, glancing over at Poe as he walked back into the kitchen.

 

“Yeah. Yeah, I just found out.”

“You don’t look very happy about that.”

Poe sighed, hanging in the doorway and watching Finn continue to work, “Things haven’t really been going my- _anyone’s_ way lately and it’s… Frustrating.” He leaned up against the frame of the door, folding his arms tightly against his chest.

Finn glanced up, scrubbing in broad circular motions, “You always seemed like the type of person to just roll with the punches.”

“What do you mean?”

He shrugged, “All of us are going to make this work. Including you.”

“I feel like that’s something I’d be telling _you_.”

“Well. We all have our moments.”

 

There was a beat in the conversation as Poe watched the long, broad motions of hand to brush, brush to floor. Soap bubbling and foaming at the edges of the bristles. He shifted his weight, finally shutting the door behind him, “do you want me to finish for you?”

Finn eagerly got up, “ _please_.”

 

The two exchanged the brush gently, their fingers grazing one another’s as it passed hands.

 

Finn looked away for a moment, “if you want to talk about anything I’m here for you.”

“Thanks, Buddy.”

 

The two shyly smiled at one other, hearing C-3PO outside babble angrily at a droid over messing with the laundry.

“Do you-”

Finn shook his head, “I’ll take care of it, don’t worry.”

 

\--

 

“Can you pass me the wrench beside you?”

 

Rey sat up a bit, in the middle of trying to manually unscrew something. There was now a huge rectangular hole in the ship, where the anticipated blasters were meant to be mounted, but lots of circuitry had to be installed and moved around to make room. “This one?” Rey pointed absently, trying to catch the screw now falling onto her head.

 

“Please.” Both Rose and Poe had handfuls of wiring, one holding onto the bundles as the other soldered them in place.

“Watch this.”

 

The two looked over their shoulders, watching Rey use the force to hand Poe the wrench. He rolled his eyes, unimpressed with the flashy gesture as Rose gasped with amazement.

“Can you two-”

Rose went to take the wrench, unintentionally wrapping Poe tighter in the yards of wiring as she attempted to trade him the soldering iron for the wrench.

“Can you- _Rose_!”

“Sorry!”

 

BB-8 had rolled to the edge of the hole all three resistance members were arguing in. The little droid started to chirp aggressively in an attempt to get Poe’s attention. He looked over his shoulder, seeing Finn hang in the makeshift doorway. Both men smiled sheepishly at eachother and Rose glanced away from the situation, trying to ignore the physical smoke signals the two were sending each other.

 

“I thought I’d come help. To repay you for helping me clean the floor yesterday.”

Poe made eye contact with Rose, the two shrugging at each other. She turned and smiled gently, “I think that would be appreciated right now... I’ll go and try to scrape some of the rust off the ship.”

 

Both Finn and Rose gave each other a smile and a nod as they traded places, the mechanic dumping about ten pounds of wiring into Finn’s arms. He shouldered the majority of them as Poe handed him the wrench.

 

“You need to open up that compartment and feed all this wiring into there. I’ll have to board the ship and then feed it out so we can start hooking up a control panel.”

Finn shrugged, “Sounds good to me.”

 

With the ex-stormtrooper’s height advantage over Rose, the process went by smoother than expected. The day seemed to go by a bit faster with all four of them working side-by-side in harmony. Finn started to open up about his time as a cadet, telling anecdotes about the nicknames they gave each other but how he much preferred having an actual name, something that made Poe blush. This led to Rey talking about the rations they had on Jakku and both her and Finn ended up having a conversation about how mediocre it is to live on bland numian cream and veg-meat.

 

The sun had started to set, the air started to cool, dinner had been eaten, and everyone trailed off to their respective rooms. All in all, it was a productive day.

 

Finn and Poe hung in the hallway outside of the pilot’s bedroom door, chatting idly about what to do next now that the ship was prepped for the expected shipment of blasters.

 

“It would be an honor to have you on as our gunner.”

Finn looked away from Poe bashfully, “I dunno.”

“You heard Rey, she thinks you’re a good shot as much as I do.”

 

Both Poe and Finn were leaning up against the wall next to Finn’s doorway, exchanging timid glances and smiles. BB-8 came rolling by the two, chirping at Poe before heading in for the night to charge. R2-D2 trailed behind, calling after the other droid and heading off down the hall.

 

Finn chuckled at the sight, “they get along well.”

“Yeah well, if you ask me,” the pilot leaned in close, “R2’s a bad influence.”

 

The two chuckled at the thought, making eye contact as their noses grazed each other. They both pulled back, glancing away.

 

“So, the two of us.” Finn pointed at his chest and then to his counterpart’s.

“Yeah?”

Poe was given a knowing look.

He looked away, “it’s like you said, we’re all under a lot of stress.”

 

“Hey. Don’t say that.” Finn took the pilot’s hand and gripped it tightly, when his squeeze was reciprocated with a tight grasp, the two leaned in for a short, dry kiss. Poe took in a tight breath through his teeth, cocking a slight smile before receiving a peck on the cheek.

 

“We should really both get to bed.” He took a step back, smiling bashfully.

Finn nodded, not wanting to overstep his boundaries, “Goodnight, Poe Dameron.”

“Good Night.”

 

Both men parted ways slowly; Finn looking over his shoulder and lingering before turning back around. Poe wandered quietly into his bedroom, shutting the door slowly behind him. It was stiff and silent as he walked over to his bed and unlaced his boots, the air feeling stale and heavy.

 

“BB-8?” He addressed the droid solemnly, with almost a whisper. It powered up, beeping enthusiastically. “Can you show me that picture of black squadron?”

 

BB turned to face the door and projected a hologram of the pilot’s former team, Poe in the middle between Jessika Pava and L'ulo L'ampa, grinning ear to ear with his arm draped over their shoulders. He sat back onto his elbows, sighing, as he studied the old photo with sad eyes.


End file.
